[CQ-Contest] Proposed new packet/assisted rule

[John WA2GO]

I was originally going to reply to the below with the observation that every 
time you call CQ you are spotting yourself - you are saying "Here I am, 
please call me, I am on this frequency and I am looking to make contacts".   
The thing is, you are only spotted in one place - the frequency you are on. 
In order for anyone to pick up your "spot", they need to tune across your 
frequency. (Yes, they would have know how to use their tuning knob...)  But 
if your "spot" (i.e., your CQ) got magically MULTIPLIED so that everyone in 
the entire world could hear it, no matter what frequency their radio was 
tuned to (or even if their radio was off at the moment), just imagine how 
much that could help you!  It would be almost like CQ'ing and listening on 
every available frequency all at once, and then some!  Powerful!   But wait 
- that is exactly what getting spotted on packet is!

Since getting spotted is equivalent to artifically expanding the scope of 
your CQ through the assistance of other operators (such as the op who 
spotted you, and the ops who run the packet network), guess what, you are 
ASSISTED!    Yes, that's right - if you get spotted, you are being assisted. 
  If you get spotted and somebody else doesn't, that puts you at an unfair 
advantage. Doesn't matter WHY you got spotted and they didn't (such as you 
have friends and they don't, you have a sexy accent and they don't, or 
whatever), you still have obtained an advantage.

While I was on that line of thinking, I came up with a solution to address 
this issue in a very fair way...

Here is my proposed rule to address this issue and create a level playing 
field once and for all:

Stations who get spotted one or more times during the contest shall enter 
the Assisted category.
Stations who wish to submit an entry in the Unassisted category shall "Opt 
Out" of being spotted.
The packet sysops shall maintain an "Opt Out" database of stations who wish 
to NOT be spotted. In order to enter as Unassisted, a station must exist in 
the Opt Out database continuously for the entire contest period. (Opting out 
can be done by sending a command to the packet system, or perhaps sending an 
email to a robot connected to the master Opt Out database, which would 
presumably be replicated to all packet nodes as needed.)
If someone attempts to spot a station who has opted out of being spotted, 
the packet system shall ignore/drop the spot and not post it. (Optionally, 
it shall notify the spotter that the station has opted out - not sure if 
that is feasible or not.)

As I said in an earlier post, I don't know anything at all about the 
technology behind packet (and I don't really care to learn, so there's no 
need to waste your time educating me on it), but I have to believe that 
something like what I have described would be technically possible. If it 
could be done, it would resolve all of the cheerleader issues and make 
treatment of all stations as fair as possible, wouldn't it??

Stations who are true Unassisted single ops and want to be recognized as 
such will still be able to do so, and they will make their contacts "the old 
fashioned way - they will earn them" by calling CQ and having people find 
them. There can be no claims of cheerleaders for them, because they never 
got spotted. Stations who want to engage the assistance of the "mouths and 
ears" of other stations can use spots and allow themselves to get spotted, 
and will enter in the Assisted category, plain and simple. Problem solved?


John
WA2GO



>From: "Blake Meinecke" <n4gi at tampabay.rr.com>
>To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
>Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Packet statistics
>Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 21:19:59 -0500
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Igor Sokolov" <ua9cdc at r66.ru>
>>We need to change rules so that it is not beneficial to use packet
>>anymore.
>
>Legalization of self-spotting for all categories.....  ?
>
>73,
>Blake N4GI
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